“A short dance film examining the connection between our younger and older selves.

Created for Scottish Ballet, this short features professional ballerina Mia Thompson and 65-year-old dancer Jill Ferguson. Choreographed by Scottish Ballet’s Artistic Director Christopher Hampson, the film is inspired by a specially commissioned poem by the Scottish Makar Jackie Kay, who narrates, accompanied by Alex Menzies’ music.”

“Pas De Deux” by Jackie Kay

Would you take haud o’ me, Take haud o’ me Haud me in your airms and birl me aroon?Would you haud close tae meHaud close tae meLift me up and put me doon?

“Statures of Gods is an exploration of the art of movement; either sculpted or through the expression of dance. When the statues of Paris become one with three ballet dancers, captured frozen in jumping movement, truth is found in the shared reach for beauty.

“ILLIAD”: A Cinematic Poem Short Film Performed and Directed By Austin Alexander And Carl Johnson.

Written, Performed and Directed by: Austin Alexander

Filmed and Co-Directed by: Carl Ray Johnson

“ILL POETRY” reflects upon the shortness of life and the transcendent value of living it for oneself, as opposed to those & that which may control us.

The poetry featured in this video is an excerpt from a very special film project entitled “ILL” that is currently being developed by Austin Alexander in partnership with Gary Goldman & Saul Williams.”

“Illiad” by Austin Alexander

Every living last one of us,Brother sister soul and son of usWill cross the river Styx and leave a story told by some of usBut the tragedy in life, Is not in that which ends usRather, gravity’s spite commends us,Complements and then condemns usOne hand digs the grave As the other one defends usThus our flesh be made a fortress till the earth regain these corpses.Painting portraits of our prime enforces fate to fade and forfeit,For it defines our spine to stand and face the grave before itWe are torrent… We pour life but don’t procure itThough we ensure it by our deedsIndeed we bleed to see our tales received by masses past our passageWe are but only passing plastic mortals asking to be perceived as everlastingAs if the last thing we breathed was “Please proceed to feed within our fasting”For we need more than bread alone to live,When dead and gone we only did, But what a long time led to not have livedBeyond the cogs of cognitive construct and conative conductWe living are love struck and fleeting…Not seeing the belief in our being to be more, begs of breedingFalse gods competing for life’s finest meaning,And they are cheating conceited council deceiving our souls to concedeBy simply selling us goals we perceive to be needing and we play the roles but They are those leadingSo this is me readingThe palms of our poems…I see vultures pluck the puppet’s eyes,Once strung and hung by neck and thighs to lords of lies, immortalized By those that made these mortal tiesWe chose our fatal sure demise And I know why we try to deny these lives.Because until people can feel equal, they will never really be fullSatisfied or peaceful, gratified and gleefulTherefore life is lethal living needful in the valley of deceitfulI see people die consumed by consuming while presuming they feed usBut the fatal flaw in fact was feeling finances freed us Only to find out we cheat us, beat us, abuse and mistreat us.When we compete to complete us, we then proceed to recede us,Depleting by eating thus feeding defeating usSuch exceedingly tedious acts of misleading usAre all facts of life that are tragically meaninglessAnd we’re not needing this sicknessThat’s been expressed and witnessed In excessive obsessed and abstract addictions…The abscess of that which has reached its transitionTo known fact from fictionNow, in fact, efficiently ILLing us, chilling, drilling then filling usWith heads full of dreadful detestable sillinessAnd my friends… this is killing usSo expect nothingness in death from life Unless you guessed to let excellence preset the exodusBe living testamentsThen commence to test thine eminence for all of the relevant evidenceLive in deliberate elegant reverenceGive and deliver your spell to the elementsTell them in eloquence Say that you are living intelligence!So as for what you leave unto this earth…Let it be more than simply skeletons.

“To celebrate its 50th Anniversary, the Indiana Arts Commission wanted to showcase its rich history of pushing the arts scene forward. This film captures the essence of local artists’ creative processes as Indiana’s Poetry Out Loud winner voices one of the Indiana Poet Laureate’s poems.”

Narrated by: Grace Milligan

“Hoosier Quilt” by Shari Wagner (Excerpt)

We take our fabric from the Field that Lincoln plowed; The same earthmound builders aligned With the movement of stars. We choose our colors from the trees As they traveled toward winter…

Amsterdam-based artist and director Ruben Van Leer’s latest film is a high-energy portrait of professional tenor and amateur boxer Frank Engel, made in collaboration with the Dutch National Opera with the aim of attracting a different audience into its drama-filled world. Here, Van Leer talks about the story behind the film:

“This film is about the courageousness of self-expression. A battle with the self is the ultimate revolution. Frank is a boxer and a tenor in the chorus of Amsterdam’s Dutch National Opera. In the film he’s fighting his demon, a shadow of himself.

“A battle with the self is the ultimate revolution”

“His fear of going on stage is bigger than that of death, of finally letting his voice be heard to the public and mastering his art. I wanted to make a tiny opera film: an existential theme that resonates within the streets, outside of theatre walls.”

“The Hound of Heaven” is a short film from emerging director, and NSA rhetoric instructor and alumnus, N.D. Wilson. It was executive produced by Hisao Kurosawa (Dreams, Ran, Rhapsody in August, After the Rain), produced by Aaron Rench and Caleb Applegate, with cinematography by NSA alum Dane Saxon Wilson, and starring hip hop artist Jason Petty AKA Propaganda and NSA student Danielle Smith.

The film premiered at Raindance Film Festival in London on October 4, 2014. In it, a girl believes that she is fleeing death, when she is actually running away from her only chance at life. Set to a surreal, nightmarish poem written in the nineteenth century by a homeless addict in London.

“The Hound of Heaven” by Francis Thompson (1893)

I fled Him down the nights and down the daysI fled Him down the arches of the yearsI fled Him down the labyrinthine waysOf my own mind, and in the midst of tearsI hid from him, and under running laughter.Up vistaed hopes I sped and shot precipitatedAdown titanic glooms of chasme d hearsFrom those strong feet that followed, followed afterBut with unhurrying chase and unperturbe d pace,Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,They beat, and a Voice beat,More instant than the feet:All things betray thee who betrayest me.I pleaded, outlaw–wise by many a hearted casement,curtained red, trellised with inter-twining charities,For though I knew His love who followe d,Yet was I sore adread, lest having Him,I should have nought beside.But if one little casement parted wide,The gust of his approach would clash it to.Fear wist not to evade as Love wist to pursue.Across the margent of the world I fled,And troubled the gold gateways of the stars,Smiting for shelter on their clange d bars,Fretted to dulcet jars and silvern chatterThe pale ports of the moon.

Meta

An Important Emerging Creative Short Film Genre.

"...underneath the young gray dawn,
a multitude of dense, white fleecy clouds,
were wandering in thick flocks along the mountains,
shepherded by the slow, unwilling wind." From "Prometheus Unbound" by Percy Bysshe Shelley